AbstractTwo volcaniclastic deposits, ROC and SBA, in the Oligo-Miocene succession of the Southern Apennines, between the Apulia and Campania regions, have been studied for the first time. Mineral composition, SEM-EDS and LA-ICP-MS analyses, for major and trace elements, respectively, allowed recognizing magmatic products of typical calc-alkaline to high-K calc-alkaline affinity. ROC glasses have a restricted compositional range in the rhyolitic field whereas SBA glasses show a wide compositional range from andesite to rhyolite, with dacite as the most common composition. Fission-track dating of apatite in the SBA deposits yielded an age of 21.7 ± 2.2 Ma, which is comprised between the Chattian and the Burdigalian. Biostratigraphic analyses in sedimentary layers adjacent to ROC layers indicate they were deposited not before Burdigalian. A provenance analysis of the studied volcaniclastics in relation to the possible source areas of the Mediterranean and neighbouring areas was performed. On the basis of time constraints, mineral and trace element composition a convincing correlation of the ROC deposits with potential source areas did not emerge. Instead, a provenance from the southwestern and northwestern Sardinian volcanic centres was favoured for the SBA volcaniclastic deposits. This hypothesis is compatible with the Oligo-Miocene paleogeographic reconstructions, that show the proximity of the Apennine sedimentary basins to Sardinia before the opening of the Tyrrhenian sea.

Abstract"This study presents a geological map illustrating the tectonic contact between the Stilo-Pazzano Phyllite unit and the Mammola Paragneiss Unit. Their juxaposition is exposed in the Paleozoic upper continental crust cropping out in the southern Serre Massif. Since the geometry of the contact has never been constrained before, a detailed geological survey has been carried out in the Levadio stream area, i.e. one of the most promising areas to constrain the tectono-magmatic setting of the Hercynian upper continental crust exposed in Calabria.

A geological map, at a scale 1:10,000, has been constructed, including also Upper Carboniferous granodiorites, belonging to the Serre batholith, and Lower Permian felsic dykes, both useful time markers to constrain the minimum age for the juxtaposition of the Stilo-Pazzano Phyllite and Mammola Paragneiss units wall rocks. According to petrographic and structural observations, the attempt to discriminate on the geological map the main deformation events has been made also by the use of tracing distinct fold-axial-planes, each referring to the related contractional deformation event. This approach makes the geological map intuitive for the relative timing of the deformational events affecting the Stilo-Pazzano Phyllite and Maola Paragneiss units. The geological mapping of the Levadio stream area shows that the post-Visean – pre-Upper Carboniferous tectonics was characterized by a main extensional event, that was responsible for the juxtaposition of the Mammola Paragneiss Unit (below) and the Stilo-Pazzano Phyllite Unit (above) under greenschist facies conditions. Three subsequent, progressively weaker contractional deformation events occurred in response to the late Hercynian emplacement and incremental growth of the Serre batholith."